The Birth of Venus - Spring

Until the 1920's, all the writers, authors and art historians considered these
two paintings to be two distinct works, because one of the paintings is 37 cm
smaller than the other. It was thought that the first painting had been
commissioned and, as it was pretty, the second one was then commissioned. The
more we look at these paintings, the more we realize, with absolute certainty,
that these paintings were made to be with one another, side by side, if not one
in the other. Not only their pictorial style, but also the artist's intention
match: one lays the groundwork for the other. With today's techniques, the
works were reexamined, and it was revealed that 32.5 cm of the top of the Birth
of Venus had been planed down, creating this size disparity which, even today,
means that the Ufizi's curators don't dare put them side by side, even though
they were made to be together. These are works which contain a message which we
shall decipher together, intellectual progress which we shall see together,
while we admire the beauty of Botticelli's painting.

It should be recalled that we are in Florence of the 1480's where artists
clustered around the princes, the Medicis in particular, but also the
Vespuccis, the Tornabuonis, etc., Botticelli and the others as well as the
humanists This new race of humanists cannot be forgotten, these men of science
whose mission was to make the past live again, to translate Virgil, Homer,
Hesiod and Pindar and to update them. These humanists were surrounded by their
disciples, the great thinkers and philosophers, and all these people lived
together. Every day, Lorenzo the Magnificent assembled these humanists and
artists and, together, much like a literary society led by Prince Apollo, the
art of Florence was created, and the humanists' ideas were then translated by
the artists, painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and musicians. Several generations
later, musical Neo-Platonism was born. We know that this Birth of Venus and
Spring, which is its direct continuation, was launched as an idea by Lorenzo
the Magnificent himself, set to verse by his favorite humanist, Ange Poliziano,
interpreted by the tiny genius, Pico della Mirandola, approved by the
patriarch, Marsilio Ficino, and the notebook was wrapped up for delivery to
Botticelli. It went from Lorenzo the Magnificent to all of Florence's humanism
of this second half of the 15th century to finally be given to Botticelli, who
thus scrupulously followed a text: the profane Birth of Venus and the coronation
of the sacred Venus. It was written by Ange Poliziano, based on an ode by
Hesiod, and the work was, in fact, paid for by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco. We
shall now see the two paintings, but one can only hope that, one day, they will
be arranged side by side so that they can be shown on a single slide.

The Birth of Venus
We see the story's birth with the winds, Zephyr and Aura, who, on the first day
of Creation, elevated this shell bearing Venus' triumphant nudity from the
unknown depths of the sea. And, approaching the earth on which she will assume
her true role, her true power, she is suddenly modest, and we should note the
stance, which Botticelli borrowed directly from the beautiful examples of the
antique Venus Pudicae that were being discovered at that time. He really painted
her like a Venus Pudica. For this modesty to take on its sacred nature, one of the Graces, in the name of all three, is there to cover her with her cape. The
Graces have the privilege of covering Venus' nudity and transforming her into
the mother and patron saint of all the forces of creation. Venus is in the
process of landing. It should be pointed out that the shore she is landing on
is very rugged and already has tall trees, both laurel and myrtle, and that the
trees are crowded together, their foliage obscuring one another.

Here are several details to make us aware of Venus'
triumphant splendor. We know that until recently, this
Birth of Venus had been lavishly covered with varnish, which means that the
successive coats of varnish had finally completely opacified. The two paintings
were superbly cleaned, and we have now discovered a new Botticelli: pearly
flesh, nearly translucent, skin so fine that we have the impression that we can
almost see the sea through it. All of the marvelous qualities of Botticelli's
painting only appeared after it had been cleaned.

This is the heroic group of winds. In fact, in their
disorder, they represent the original chaos, as Venus was born from this chaos
which thus pushed her to take over the world. An admirable Grace with
the cape which she has prepared to cover Venus with the
flowers and fruits of the earth, as she shall become Venus Flora and Pomona.
She will be all that and, as the sacred Venus, she will be the mistress of the
gods and goddesses of Olympus. This Grace has a superb face, which Ingres had
always maintained was the most beautiful face ever painted (he always liked
chinless women).

The apparent movement in the light of the white dress covered with cornflowers does not come
from its folds, but rather from the play of the cornflowers' blues, the sunlit
parts, the shaded parts, the parts in the foreground, the parts in the
background all sculpted by the cornflowers covering these fields which cause
the beauty of this Grace's body to dominate the painting, who is one of the most
beautiful parts of the Birth of Venus.

Spring
From the start, it should be pointed out that this is the same forest, the same
trees, the same foliage, the same spacing between the trees, the same land, the
same ground, the same flower patches. In other words, Venus was born and landed
in this second painting which is Spring - it is the continuation. We still find
her as the composition's central focus, but dressed as a sovereign. From the
profane Venus we saw earlier, nude, we now progress to the sacred Venus, dressed
as a matron in the noblest sense of the term. As such, she is truly the patron
saint of the forces and elements and is surrounded by everything she needs to
triumph over the twelve months of the year, the four seasons and, thus, eternity.

Mercury extends his caduceus to stop the wind which had been blowing
earlier with Zephyr and his brother and, at the same time, stops winter from becoming
spring. The striking group of the three Graces, perhaps the most beautiful ever
painted, is the affirmation of Primavera, that is, Spring, which Venus is still
facing. Then time passes, and we see the affirmation of summer, represented
here by Flora, whose robe is now, so to speak, made of flowers and who is
strewing flowers, the product of her generosity, on the ground. And autumn by
Chloe, who is nearly timidly turned toward a blue and somewhat terrifying
character who is trying to catch her. This character is Zephyr who, at one time,
forgot to blow, because he was chasing the nymph, Chloe through the woods.

What is absolutely extraordinary, if one thinks back to the Birth, is that we
have Zephyr, Venus and a Grace in the first painting, and here, we have Mercury,
the Graces, Venus, Flora, Chloe and Zephyr. It all begins and ends with
Zephyr; the two paintings thus form a complete cycle of seasons - winter,
spring, summer and autumn. This was all done in order to show us nature's cycle
which is so inherent to the Hesiodic Neo-Platonic inspiration for people such
as Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and others who dreamed of that period.
But it also shows us the primacy of sacred love, as it is incarnated here, over profane love,
over the fragility of the water and the shell in the preceding
work. In fact, all the allusions could be studied at much greater length to
show all the similarities between the two paintings. For the time being, let's take a walk through Spring.

On the left, Mercury and the Graces and, above all, the very beautiful image of Mercury raising his
caduceus to stop the clouds and the wind in order to allow the Graces to dance peacefully - nothing could be more beautiful. The robes appear to be transparent
but aren't, as one can barely make out the bodies. The bodies are part of the
dance, as the cloth really dances and the arm movements, in particular, are
sublime.

Then we have Venus in the center of the
composition, in this nearly solemn pose she has assumed, a matron presiding over the year, as it develops with the character of Flora, one of the loveliest
details of Spring, and Chloe and Zephyr, the last
three characters whose dancing, here again, is the exact counterpoint to the group of the three Graces.

Details of Flora's face, the best-known in
Botticelli's works, of Flora's robe, which is like a
rendering of the Grace's robe in the Birth of Venus. All of her movements are
also the result of a deliberate distortion of the flowers and the bouquet of
flowers she is preparing to throw to the world. Finally,
Chloe, pursued by Zephyr who, in both instances has the same distended
cheeks; in one case, he is blue, this is the winter Zephyr, in the other, the
Birth of Venus, he is nearly yellow, this is the spring Zephyr.
Leaving these paintings which represent one of the heights of Botticelli's
profane painting, we hope that we have succeeded in demonstrating the extent to
which it responds to an iconographic program, the extent to which this program
is a myth and the extent to which the myth is meant to educate us about the
primacy of sacred love over profane love. It is paramount to be aware of this,
as we can already note that in the Christian paintings, Botticelli never even
tries to educate. On the other hand, in the pagan paintings, from Mars and Venus
on and mostly with the Birth of Venus and Spring, we can see that there is an
attempt at education. It is rather extraordinary to realize that Botticelli is
more at ease in this mythical didactic role with the "pagan" gods than with his
perennial Christianity.